Elon doesn't even like solar for space use it sounded like from Rogan's more recent podcast episode with him.
Definitely not supposed to be a main use. Elon likes solar, but also believes it can't be more efficient than it is now.
So that presents an interesting problem if he's correct. Investment into solar was always based around a future promise of better efficiency, to get the infrastructure in place and improve on it over time.
But when we are talking about scaling it to millions, tens of millions, hundreds of millions, billions of people, there's just not enough surface area and probably not enough material on the planet to sustain it.
It's worse if it can't operate at high temperatures either -- which is kind of important since the best places for solar tend to be places with higher temperatures.
Solar's best use case, after it comes down more in cost, is for supplementary power on an individual's home basis, and for preppers / off the grid living.
Powering an electrical grid? We need something far more efficient. Nuclear is clearly the future technology of the past that needs to be further developed, as it has near limitless energy potential. We just need to figure out how to get rid of the waste, as right now we store it in expensive containers permanently to the best of my knowledge.
Solar is neat but inefficient. Hydro is expensive and requires heavy construction and maintenance. Aero is clearly the worst, as it is even more conditional than solar and way more destructive to the environment than hydro, and requires a lot of land.
nuclear waste issue has been mostly solved. just the narrative and lack of political & investment interest holding it back.
i'm just going by memory, but do look into it for yourself:
thorium reactors, molten salt reactors, small modular reactors... all that technology is largely ready to go. very safe, meltdown safeguards built-in. thorium & some uranium can be recycled back into more energy-generation up to a point where the resultant waste is miniscule & can be disposed of as bricks. radioactive sludge waste products not so relevant anymore.
This. Any serious energy engineer will tell you that the only current clean energy technology available to serve our massive power needs is nuclear. The safety issues have been drastically improved and are very manageable. Wind and solar have a horrible ROI, but are largely driven by $cience. Ramp up our domestic oil and gas industry to serve our needs in parallel with a massive 10 year deployment of nuclear. Global warming, I mean Climate change is a hoax, but that doesn’t mean we should not have a responsible, non-political long term energy strategy.
Solar like other green technology is for complimentary purposes and never should be considered a main way of generating power.
Elon doesn't even like solar for space use it sounded like from Rogan's more recent podcast episode with him.
Definitely not supposed to be a main use. Elon likes solar, but also believes it can't be more efficient than it is now.
So that presents an interesting problem if he's correct. Investment into solar was always based around a future promise of better efficiency, to get the infrastructure in place and improve on it over time.
But when we are talking about scaling it to millions, tens of millions, hundreds of millions, billions of people, there's just not enough surface area and probably not enough material on the planet to sustain it.
It's worse if it can't operate at high temperatures either -- which is kind of important since the best places for solar tend to be places with higher temperatures.
Solar's best use case, after it comes down more in cost, is for supplementary power on an individual's home basis, and for preppers / off the grid living.
Powering an electrical grid? We need something far more efficient. Nuclear is clearly the future technology of the past that needs to be further developed, as it has near limitless energy potential. We just need to figure out how to get rid of the waste, as right now we store it in expensive containers permanently to the best of my knowledge.
Solar is neat but inefficient. Hydro is expensive and requires heavy construction and maintenance. Aero is clearly the worst, as it is even more conditional than solar and way more destructive to the environment than hydro, and requires a lot of land.
nuclear waste issue has been mostly solved. just the narrative and lack of political & investment interest holding it back.
i'm just going by memory, but do look into it for yourself:
thorium reactors, molten salt reactors, small modular reactors... all that technology is largely ready to go. very safe, meltdown safeguards built-in. thorium & some uranium can be recycled back into more energy-generation up to a point where the resultant waste is miniscule & can be disposed of as bricks. radioactive sludge waste products not so relevant anymore.
This. Any serious energy engineer will tell you that the only current clean energy technology available to serve our massive power needs is nuclear. The safety issues have been drastically improved and are very manageable. Wind and solar have a horrible ROI, but are largely driven by $cience. Ramp up our domestic oil and gas industry to serve our needs in parallel with a massive 10 year deployment of nuclear. Global warming, I mean Climate change is a hoax, but that doesn’t mean we should not have a responsible, non-political long term energy strategy.
LFTRs. Much MUCH SAFER than current nuke plants. And we have 300 + years of fuel for them in coal tailings.